Quoting flanker (Thread starter):An administration official says President Obama next will announce the first loan guarantee for a nuclear power plant in nearly three decades, to the Southern Company in Georgia

Good news and a step in the right direction from the Obama administration.

Hopefully this isn't just a token change toward our goal of energy independence, and in the coming months I want more commitments made to clean coal and expanded oil exploration and drilling.

Unfortunately:
"Even with next week's announcement, actual construction of the first reactor is still years away. The Southern Co. has applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a construction and operating license for the plant, one of 13 such applications the agency is considering. NRC spokesman Eliott Brenner said the earliest any of those could be approved would be late 2011 or early 2012"

Quoting JetsGo (Reply 3):Now watch all the NIMBY's make this completely ineffective.

I agree. I have a deep-seated lack of faith in this country's ability to do anything constructive or anything that will actually benefit it.

I also wonder about the new Lightbridge company's thorium reactor designs. From what I've read, these reactors are far cheaper, far cleaner, and are apparently inherently unable to melt-down or overheat because overheating triggers an expansion of the fuel that self-quenches the reaction.

Quoting JetsGo (Reply 3):Now watch all the NIMBY's make this completely ineffective.

I would expect nothing less but it makes good press for the president knowing that nothing will ever get done to produce power.
It is a safe path for the president to take, looks like he is for alternative sources of power, knowing that the legal lobby that supports his presidency will profit from the litigation.

I suspect with environmental impact and litigation before construction begins we are talking 12 to 14 years of legal bills just to make the first watt of electricity if it ever gets that far.

Despite the almost inevitable delays due to complains from NIMBY'S and environmental whack-jobs, it's a step in the right direction and a good gesture from a President that hasn't fully won the support of proponents of nuclear power.

Quoting JetsGo (Reply 3):Now watch all the NIMBY's make this completely ineffective.

There's ways around that:

Quoting DocLightning (Reply 5):
I also wonder about the new Lightbridge company's thorium reactor designs. From what I've read, these reactors are far cheaper, far cleaner, and are apparently inherently unable to melt-down or overheat because overheating triggers an expansion of the fuel that self-quenches the reaction.

I really REALLY hope they build one of those in full scale. It's the best alternative until we can figure out how to sustain nuclear fusion.

Quoting newark777 (Reply 2):NRC spokesman Eliott Brenner said the earliest any of those could be approved would be late 2011 or early 2012"

So in reality, the first plant won't actually be completed until 2015, if anything?